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Time For Simpson To Move Aside For NUFC?

12 years ago
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Despite Danny Simpson seemingly keeping Oxlade-Chaimberlein in his pocket against Arsenal, Simpson has somewhat struggled in recent times this season, in a defence that has leaked goals in the last month or two.

Many would be quick to shift this blame to Mike Williamson, or Davide Santon on the left. However, as much as I am a fan of Simmo, I do believe his hard work and commitment to the team is not enough to keep him in the side and maybe a stint in the sidelines would do him some good.

Simpson’s passion for the team does not go unnoticed and for that reason alone many fans will, and possibly rightly so, be thinking negative things of this article, however I believe Danny is not only struggling defensively but even more so going forward….

Defensively Danny’s upper body strength  and good footballing brain seem to win him a lot of battles down the flanks against the faster players, however I have noticed whenever players come inside onto their right foot off the left hand side, players like Bale and Dempsey, Simmo seems to struggle to cope on his left foot and almost in some cases seems to give up, or opt to cover his right back position in a more zonal sort of play then a man marking sort. Thus leaving the winger who is drifting inside to Coco or Williamson. However ,defending is not where I see Danny’s major downfall to be, I see going forward to be his major struggle.

With Gutierrez  a permanent fixture on the left,  on the right Simmo has played with Guthrie, Obertan, HBA, and Ryan Taylor in front of him with 3 of the 4 love to get forward, the odd one out being Ryan Taylor.

The Taylor-Simpson partnership on the right hand side seems to be the only one that works going forward, due to the fact the pair of them rarely get forward, so they don’t do much wrong.

However,  when Simpson plays with Gabby, HBA, or very occasionally Danny Guthrie, he is very often slow to get forward and support them. Then when he does his final delivery is dire, crosses are more often than not over hit and Simmo often takes very long to get back In position, due to his lack of pace. He also seemingly panics with what to do when he gets in good positions on the edge or around the box.

What I would do is put Santon on the right, he is right footed and has much more flair going forward, then  put Ryan Taylor on the left! He started there brilliantly, so why Pardew seems reluctant to playing him back there again I will never figure out?

It’s a shame but Danny Simpson is not the right back to take us into Europe.

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